Rule Construction

Use this dialog box to configure a Closest Server rule. Click OK when you are finished to save the rule definition and close the dialog box.

Rule Name

Specify a name for the rule. It displays in the Closest Server Rules listing in ZENworks Control Center. To access this listing, click Configuration in the left pane, click the Configuration tab, click the Management Zone Settings panel to open it, click Infrastructure Management section to open it, then click Closest Server Rules. All defined rules for the current level are displayed there.

Exclude the Closest Server Default Rule

Select this check box if you do not want to append the default rule. The Closest Server rules feature first uses the servers specified in the rule, then proceeds to any other servers listed in the Closest Server Default rule if the specified servers are not available to the managed device. Therefore, to obtain content only from the servers specified in the rule, select this check box to exclude all other servers.

Rule Logic

Using the Rule Logic fields, create the rule expression.

An expression consists of a criteria option, operator, and value. For example:

DNS Name Filter equal to *.novell.com

DNS Name Filter is the criteria option, equal to is the operator, and *.novell.com is the value. In the above example, the Closest Server rule is applied only to devices whose DNS name ends with .novell.com.

If necessary, you can use NOT to perform a logical negation of the expression. For example:

NOT DNS Name Filter equal to *.novell.com

In the above example, the Closest Server rule is applied only to devices whose DNS name does not end with .novell.com.

You can use more than one expression for the rule. For example:

DNS Name Filter equal to provo.novell.com or IP Address equal to 123.45.678.12/24

The criteria options you can use are listed below.

Option

Explanation

DNS Name Filter

Matches DNS names that meet the filter criteria. You can specify an exact filter or use a question mark (?) or an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to match one or more characters in the DNS name. A ? matches one character and an * matches one or more characters. Examples:

provo.novell.com: Matches all devices in the provo subdomain of the novell.com top-level domain.

*.novell.com: Matches all devices in the novell.com top-level domain, including any devices in subdomains.

provo?.novell.com: Matches all devices in the provo1 and provo 2 subdomains of the novell.com top-level domain; does not match devices in the provo12 subdomain.

IP Address /n

Matches IP addresses that fall within the specified CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) block. With CIDR, the dotted decimal portion of the IP address is interpreted as a 32-bit binary number that has been broken into four 8-bit bytes. The number following the slash (/n) is the prefix length, which is the number of shared initial bits, counting from the left side of the address. The /n number can range from 0 to 32, with 8, 16, 24, and 32 being commonly used numbers. Examples:

123.45.678.12/16: Matches all IP addresses that start with 123.45.

123.45.678.12/24: Matches all IP addresses that start with 123.45.678.

Collection, Content, Configuration, and Authentication Servers

Each of the server lists can include individual servers, groups of servers, and L4 switch servers. The following sections provide the tasks you can perform to manage each of these.

You can add servers to the empty group later using the Groups > Add to Group option.

Specify a name for the group, then click OK to add the group to the list.

Click Apply to make the change effective.

Add servers to a group

In the desired server list, select the check boxes for the servers you want to add to the group.

Click Groups > Add to Group.

Do one of the following:

To add the selected servers to a new group, select Create New , specify a group name, then click OK.

To add the selected servers to an existing group, select a group from the list in the Select Existing field, then click OK.

Click Apply to make the change effective.

Reorder the list

In the server list, select the check box for the server, group, or L4 switch you want to move.

Click Move Up or Move Down as necessary to change its order in the list.

Repeat as necessary to order the list.

Placement in the list determines the order in which servers are contacted. The first list item (server, group, or L4 switch) is contacted first, then the second, and so forth.

You can order the items in the lists differently. This allows you to spread the workload initiated by devices by placing different servers higher in one list than in the other lists. For example:

Collection Servers:
Server1, Group1, Server3, L4Switch5

Content Servers:
L4Switch5, Server2, Server3, Server1

Configuration Servers:
Server3, Server2, Group1

Authentication Servers:
Group1, L4Switch5, Server1, Server2

Copy a group from one list to another list

In the server list to which you want to copy a group, click Groups > Copy Existing Group.

For example, to copy a group from the Collection Servers list to the Content Servers list, click Groups > Copy Existing Group in the Content Servers list.

Select the desired group from the list, then click OK to copy the group.

Click Apply to make the change effective.

If you copy a group to a list that does not already contain the group’s servers, the unlisted servers are removed from the group. For example, if Group1 includes Server1 and Server2 and you copy Group1 to a list that does not include Server1, Server1 is removed from the group.

Remove servers from a group

In the server list, expand the group to display its servers.

Select the check boxes for the servers that you want to remove from the group.

Click Groups > Remove from Group, then click OK.

Click Apply to make the change effective.

The servers are not removed from the server list, only from the group.

Remove a group

In the server list, select the check box for the group you want to remove.

Click Groups > Remove Group, then click OK.

Click Apply to make the change effective.

The group’s servers are not removed, only the group.

L4 Switches

If you have ZENworks Servers or Satellites that are clustered behind an L4 switch, you can define the L4 switch and add the servers to the definition. This enables the L4 switch to continue to balance the traffic among those servers.

Task

Steps

Additional Details

Create an L4 switch definition

In the server list, select the check boxes for the servers to include in the L4 switch definition, then click L4 Switch > Create L4 Switch Definition from Selection.